This year the national Summer Reading Challenge for 4 to 11 year olds will run in Wiltshire libraries now until the 6th September, and the theme is ‘Mythical Maze’.
The challenge is simple, for children to read six books over the summer, tell us about the books and collect ‘rewards’ to mark their progress. Incentives this year include a neon green wristband, scratch and sniff stickers, and a medal plus certificate on completion.
Mythical Maze is not a competition, but a fun personal challenge to encourage children to read more and use libraries more. Last year 9,330 Wiltshire children joined the challenge, with 5,803 reading all 6 books and 38,441 books being read in total. Families love the challenge and last year 96% of the participants said that by taking part in the challenge their reading had improved a little or a lot.
Children’s reading can ‘dip’ during the long summer holidays, and The Reading Agency’s annual Summer Reading Challenge helps get three quarters of a million children into libraries to maintain their reading skills and confidence. It’s free, it’s fun and it really can make a difference to a child’s love of reading – because everything changes when we read.
For further information contact your local library. Westbury Library Tel: 01373 822295 or Warminster Library Tel: 01985 216022.
There are two activities coming up at Warminster Library that will run along side the reading challenge. On Tuesday 5th August 10.30am-11.30am Dragon Tales (stories and crafts with a dragon theme for 4-11 year olds). On Tuesday 19th August 10.30am-11.30am – Elmer’s Maze of Amazing Colours (stories and crafts based on the popular children’s book character for 4-9 year olds.)
